In typical photofinishing operations a user (sometimes referenced as a customer), delivers one or more film rolls carrying corresponding exposed films, to a processing laboratory to have them chemically developed and hardcopies of the images (such as paper prints or slides) prepared. The user can include an individual or a retail store. Individual films are often spliced together end to end to form a larger roll which is easily handled by automated equipment. Following chemical processing of the roll to yield permanent images from the latent images on the films, each image is scanned at high speed to obtain image characteristics, such as color and density. These characteristics are passed to an optical printer which uses the characteristic data to adjust exposure conditions (such as exposure time, color balance, and the like) of an image frame on the developed film which is optically projected onto a photosensitive paper. The exposed photosensitive paper is then chemically developed to yield the final hardcopy prints. In modem photofinishing operations, images may optionally also be scanned to provide an image signal corresponding to each image on the film. These image signals are usually stored on a medium such as a magnetic or optical disk and provided to the customer, or made available to the customer over the Internet, and may be used then or at a later time to provide a hardcopy output. When the customer order is completed, each film is cut into strips (for 35 mm film) or reattached to a film cassette (for Advanced Photo System films), the exposed paper (when prints are made) is cut into individual prints, and the film, completed prints and any other media (such as a disk bearing scanned images, or mounted slides) are packaged at a finishing station and the order is then complete. Recently it has been described that in the foregoing type of photofinishing operation, the optical printer can be replaced with a digital printer which will print the images directly from the scanned data, following enhancements or other manipulations to the scanned images.
There is a high degree of interest among photographers in using the images returned from a photofinisher in a multitude of products, other than in typical prints or slides. For example, it is known to provide a service whereby a photographer can provide a particular image to a service operator, who will scan the image and print it on T-shirts, cups, calendars, or similar items. Such products can also be ordered remotely from a personal computer using digitized images and a service such as Eastman Kodak's KODAK IMAGE MAGIC PRINT SERVICE. However, this requires the photographer to have some independent knowledge beforehand of the type of service she might want, and how and where to obtain that service. Furthermore, prior to accessing that specific service and typically until the desired product is produced, the photographer has only a vague mental idea as to how a finished product using one of his own images (versus a "stock" image) might look in the finished product. However, photographers are left to their own devices to locate products or services which might be of interest to them even though they may repeatedly indicate an interest in such products or services by the pictures they take. It has been known for photofinishers to include in a large number of completed photographer orders, the same coupon or other advertising material. However, such a generalized approach provides photographers with information which is little more than the equivalent of that provided by "junk mail", since it completely fails to take into account an individual photographer's preferences, and particularly their preferences in relation to their own images.
It would be desirable if some way was provided to readily make available to a photographer a type of product or service she might already want, with little or no effort to locate such a product or service on the photographer's part. It would be particularly desirable to readily make available such a product or service in relation to a consumer's images, and further desirable if in the case of a product the consumer could simultaneously be provided with a realistic view of a final product incorporating the consumer's image before ordering that product.